Torturous Coincidence

Remember the torture report? That was the result of a six-year investigation championed by Senator Dianne Feinstein into the Bush era’s “enhanced interrogation techniques” later banned by Obama. Feinstein wanted the report declassified, but a battle ensued between the CIA, Republicans and Democrats. As legal battles were underway, the CIA “mistakenly shredded” its copy of the report. Republican Senator Burr said the torture report was a congressional record (which is not FOIA-able) and must be returned to Congress. The ACLU challenged Burr’s claim. After the ACLU lost that case, Acting CIA Inspector General Christopher answered Burr’s demand and returned the report to Congress, where it is, in fact,no longer subject to FOIA. But we thought it was shredded, so how did they “return it”? Funny story, turns out the CIA wasmistakenabout having mistakenly shredded the report. So it was only thought to be shredded when it was at risk of exposure, but after the ACLU lost its case, it was found! “It’s embarrassing and I have apologized,” is what Sharpley had to say. “The point of distributing it to the departments was in the hope that they would read it - not look at it as some poison document - and learn from it,” said Feinstein. We’re with her on that one and disappointed that the report won’t see the light of day foryears to come.